A resolution has been reached in a long-running commercial court action brought by a Middle Eastern engineering and architecture firm against businessman Barry English over alleged unjust enrichment.
The action was launched in 2017 by Hogan Keoghan Ryan Middle East Architects Engineering LLC (HKRME) against Mr English, the founder of Winthrop Engineering, who had denied all the claims against him.
At the commercial court this week, the plaintiff’s senior counsel, Colm Ó hOisín SC, told Mr Justice Denis McDonald that the matter was resolved following out-of-court discussions.
With the consent of the parties, the court could make an order where Mr English agreed to pay HKRME €1.25 million from a trust.
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The money are to be paid to the plaintiff’s solicitors, McDermott, Creed & Martyn, and will be used to pay employees and creditors of Abu Dhabi HKRME.
Mr English, with a business address at Turnpike Lane, Ballymount, Dublin, had denied all the claims.
His senior counsel, Bernard Dunleavy, told the court his client was consenting to the order. Two other separate but related actions could be struck out.
Mr Justice McDonald made the order sought and praised the parties for reaching an agreement.
When the case first came to court in 2017, HKRME, with registered offices in Abu Dhabi, along with Jeremiah Ryan and Patrick Stafford, a representative of a trust set up for Mr Ryan’s children, sought the return of US$8 million (€7.4 million) from Mr English.
Mr Ryan claimed the money was held by Mr English in a caretaker arrangement for the Ryan family trust.
It was claimed a demand was made for Mr English to return the money in 2014, but he failed to do so.
In a ruling in 2019, Mr Justice McDonald rejected certain claims by Mr Ryan, HKRME and Mr Stafford.
Mr Justice McDonald dismissed the claim by Mr Ryan and Mr Stafford as he was satisfied the trust did not have any beneficial interest in the shares of HKRME.
He found the true nature of the agreement between Mr Ryan and Mr English was that Mr English would act as caretaker of the shares on Mr Ryan’s behalf, but not as caretaker on behalf of the family trust.
As Mr Ryan had made no personal claim in the proceedings, this finding regarding the true nature of the agreement was of no benefit to Mr Ryan, the judge said.
HKRME could also not succeed on the basis of the two men’s alleged agreement.
However, HKRME was entitled to pursue Mr English over alleged unjust enrichment, the judge found.
In his defence, Mr English said there was no such caretaker arrangement.
He claimed he agreed to buy the shares at a time when Mr Ryan was facing bankruptcy and to sell them back to him “at market value” after he exited bankruptcy.
The sum agreed between the two men for the company was €100,000 but after Mr Ryan entered his UK bankruptcy, some US$8 million were transferred from HKRME to a Guernsey bank account.
That account was held by a British Virgin Islands-registered firm called Sunvit which was allegedly controlled by another trust established for the benefit of Mr English’s family.
HKRME was primarily established in the hope of winning a large project, the Abu Dhabi Plaza, in Astan, capital of Kazakhstan and won that contract in 2010 for fees of $41 million.
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